Knife guard



Jan. 7, 1930.

L. EWING KNIFE GUARD Filed Jan. 13, 1926 nventoz Jazz/181266 ZWZ2 %ZZMAZ 6mm,

Patented Jan. 7, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE LAWRENCE EWING, FGREENFIELD, IVIASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN RUSSELL CUTLERY COMPANY,OF TURNER-S FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS KNIFEGUARD Application filed January 13, 1926. Serial No. 81,045.

optionally, to form a unitary part of knives at the time of theirmanufacture.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a knife guard havingsecuring lugs arranged to embrace the knife handle.

Another object of the invention 1s to provide a combined knife andguard, the latter element being capable of detachment if so desired,leaving the knife intact.

Instances are known in which a separate knife guard is provided, but insuch cases the guard is built into the knife at the time of itsmanufacture, and cannot subsequently be attached to knives originallybuilt without it.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a knife provided with aguard embodying the principles of the invention.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the same, a part of the knife blade beingbroken away.

Figure 3 is a section taken along the line of Figure l viewed in thedirection of the arrows.

Referring now in detail to the several figures, the numeral 1 representsthe knife blade having a hilt portion 2 lying between the handle pieces3 and 4 and suitably secured to said handle pieces by means such as therivets The handle pieces are usually of wood but may be made of anysuitable material.

In using knives of this type without guards, particularly in cuttingmeat the hand and the handle frequently become greasy so that there isgreat danger of the hand slipping forward should the blade of the knifestrike an obstruction, causing the hand to contact with the edge of theblade, with consequent injury. The guard which I provide to 0bviate thisrisk consists of a shield the fingerengaging portion 6 from which extendthe spaced and substantially parallel lugs 7 and 8, the latter beingadapted to embrace the handle pieces 3 and 4 as shown in Figure 3 and tobe secured thereto by suitable means such as the screws 9, shown inFigure 2. In an illustrative embodiment of my invention the handle ismortised so that the lugs 7 and 8 lie flush with the faces of the handlepieces, but this is not essential, for the lugs may be spacedsufficiently wide to embrace the handle pieces without mortising thelatter. Preferably the lugs 7 and 8 are made sufficiently bendable orresilient to be drawn together against the handle pieces by the securingmeans.

It is apparent that a guard such as has just been described may eitherbe built into the knife at the time of its manufacture, or subsequentlyattached to almostany form of knife, and that, should it be desired atany time to dispense with the guard it may be removed leaving the knifesubstantially intact, and the same guard may then be attached to anotherknife.

The knife guard just described is formed of a substantiallyT-shapedstrip of sheet metal of which the vertical portion is bent atsubstantially a right angle to its horizontal portion and curvedforwardly from and then rearwardly toward the latter portion to form thefinger engaging portion 6. The members of the horizontal portion of suchstrip are bent in the opposite direction substantially into parallelismto one another on lines substantially parallel to the side edges of theportion 6 to form the lugs 8 and 9. The finger guard therefore not onlymay b. produced at a very low cost but may be ap plied to any knifehandle of which the thickness is equal to or not materially greater thanthe space between the lugs 8 and 9.

Having described my invention What I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

A knife guard formed of sheet metal, comprising a substantially U-shapedmember to embrace a portion of a knife handle said U-shaped memberhaving a portion formed integrally with and extending downwardly andforwardly from its bight and forming a shield and stop for theforefinger of the hand of a user grasping the handle of a knife to whichsaid guard is applied, all of the parts of said guard being ofsubstantially the same thickness.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set y e d- LAWRENCE EWING.

